"Looks like it's our turn, eh?" Rouge glanced at Topaz. The two of them were in an armored mecha based on designs provided by Uncle Chuck some time ago.

"Yeah." Topaz nodded.

If Nega was hoping the present would go quietly he was sorely mistaken. Station Square had taken measures to ensure its fortification. While the two Chucks had been working on tracing the time/space distortion, an army had been in the works.

"Let's move!" Rouge gave a fanged grin as Topaz started up the machine. Rouge was playing gunner and with deadly accuracy. "Good thing we've been expecting trouble, eh?"

"Don't get too cocky!" Topaz shook her head.

"Oi! How are you ladies doing?" Sam Speed's voice called through the radio. His unit had been refitted with weapons just for this assignment, and he was more than happy to be away from the desk job.

"Just fine, Sam, we've hardly begun!" Topaz replied.

"Sam? Who's Sam? This is Lightning Gale!" his voice chirped.

Nega's forces were much like the ones the original Eggman had been preparing. The Mobian forces had taken care of Eggman's front while Earth's resources were now trained on Nega's. G.U.N. joined in the fight as well. A large amount of firepower was unleashed as both forces met, as much in the air as possible to reduce casualties.

Soon after, Nega's battleship cleared the portal. Shortly behind that, two figures breached the portal in the air, a white hedgehog and a lavender cat. From the back of a pink Extreme Gear, the cat began a flurry of fiery attacks on the mechanical army. The white hedgehog seemed to be able to manipulate the mecha themselves, causing them to crash into each other.

The unusual sky, showing the gateway to the future, had not escaped anyone's eyes. The news broadcasts, both Mobian and Earth, were coming in loud and clear with the reports. From the Thorndyke mansion, Sara turned her gaze skyward.

"You think they're all right?" she asked softly.

"Yeah. They have to," Chris said comfortingly, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Papa?" Maria called in her soft little voice.

Knuckles' eyes fell on the room. Aside the dim glow of the emeralds, it was dark. A black flame had poured out of the center pillar, engulfing the room moments before. It hadn't burned Knuckles or Maria or even Eggman, but the room was tarnished.

"Everyone okay?" Charles' voice called through Knuckles' headset.

"I'm...I'm not sure," Knuckles said softly.

"Wow, that was something! The merger was a complete success..!" Tails called, finally catching up to Knuckles. When his eyes fell on the room, though, he became breathless. "Is he?"

"I don't know..."

"Papa?" Maria's tone became scared.

"I told you...you can't die before me...bastard..." Shadow's voice echoed in the void.

"Like I'd ever agree to that, huh? I plan on outrunning death itself!" Sonic's voice retorted.

"Good." A red glow illuminated the darkness, followed by a similar blue spark.

"Did we do it?" The blue spark took a ghostly form of Sonic the hedgehog.

"Yeah. But it's not over." The red spark took the outline of Shadow's form.

"Beat the bad guy and go home?" Sonic asked, starting to race through the void, though there were no landmarks to guide him.

Shadow's spirit followed beside him. "It's not that simple; we need to set time and space right."

"So we send the future back where it belongs while kicking Nega out. That guy rubs me the wrong way," Sonic said as they continued the trek through the void, looking for any landmarks.

"Mobius and Earth are one right now, should we set that back as well?" Shadow detected a flicker of emerald light ahead.

"I guess so. But the worlds are going to join anyways, why not now?" Sonic saw the light too...two of them.

Shadow held his hand out, and the emerald light absorbed into it, his form becoming a bit more solid. "Because we're not ready."

Sonic did likewise. "You think?"

"There's too many unknowns, a merger now would mean war tomorrow. I don't want my little girl growing up in that." Shadow's eyes searched and caught a silver light ahead.

"Right." Sonic felt strength returning to him as he passed the silver light. "Well, we have two time period's emeralds, we should be able to do something, right?"

A smile curled on Shadow's lips as they passed another of the emerald lights. "Maybe."

Amy continued to sob over Sonic's unresponsive body. She hadn't noticed the emeralds reacting in the room. First the green, then the silver, then the blue...until all seven were illuminating the room. "Wha?" She looked around the room as the many colored lights washed over the room.

The lights converged on the blue hedgehog and his eyes fluttered open. His arms wrapped around Amy tightly, her tears frozen at the sudden comfort she'd been praying for. "I'm still here," Sonic's voice reached her ears, though there was some disbelief in her eyes.

"S...Sonic" She tried to wipe her tears away to better look at him. His eyes had turned crimson and his quills gold.

"Hang on!" He grinned, sweeping her off her feet.

On the Egg Fortress, Shadow had woken up. A ghastly aura of Chaos had radiated off of him until, in an apparent daze, he replaced his limiters. The emeralds in the room began to glow and converged around the hedgehog, whose quills turned a brilliant platinum.

"Shadow?!" Knuckles started in disbelief.

"Papa!" Maria beamed.

"Wow! You're alive!" Tails said in shock.

Shadow glided over to the group, casting an affectionate gaze on his daughter. "Get out of here as fast as you can. I'm taking down Eggman's fleet, then I'm going to join Sonic." He lightly pat her on the head while addressing the echidna and fox.

"Right." Tails nodded.

Shadow paused a moment and looked back at his little girl. "Then again...I think she's better off with me." He scooped Maria up into his arms and took off. Neither Knuckles nor Tails would have dared get in his way.

"Hey! It's Sonic!" Chris called and dared venture outside the house. Sara couldn't help following.

The gold hedgehog gently set Amy down on the sidewalk. "There we go." He beamed. "Hey, Chris! Taking care of things here?" He winked.

"Yeah! Well as I can at least." The teen grinned.

"Come back safely!" Amy scolded her lover.

Seconds later, Shadow touched down at the residence. "Hey. Brought you something."

Sara's expression was overjoyed as she extended her arms for their baby. "Shadow! Thank you so much!" She kissed his cheek and thought she detected a little blush from him.

"It's not over yet." Shadow gave her a light kiss before glancing back at the portal. "Ahh...Nega's a pain, eh?"

Sonic nodded in agreement. "Ready?"

"Always." Shadow's feet hardly seemed to touch the ground, and he and Super Sonic were off to meet the enemy.

As robot after robot came after them, Blaze's pyrokinetic abilities seemed to weaken. Silver's telekinetic abilities also seemed to wane as the battle raged on. "I won't give up!" The white hedgehog said in a determined way. His power surged, sending two of the larger craft into each other. A few laser blasts of cover fire issued from the guns on Rouge and Topaz' machine, which was starting to take some damage.

Silver and gold streaks blurred across the battleground, keeping large chunks of debris from reaching the streets and even hurtling the damaged mecha back through the time portal. "This...this can't be happening!" Nega insisted as he was seeing large chunks of his forces disappear without a trace.

"It can." Sonic grinned, appearing on the deck of his battle cruiser.

"And it is." Shadow smirked beside him.

"No!" Nega wasted no time, training all weapons on the pair of hedgehogs and firing. The blasts did more damage to his ship than anything else, the pair standing there unfazed.

"That it?" Sonic complained.

"Our turn." Shadow gave a sinister grin.

From the ground, twin flashes of light were seen tearing through the battle cruiser as though it were made of paper. The rest of the forces were scattered and destroyed the same way. As the battle came to a close, cheering went up from the people of the newly merged worlds.

Blaze turned to Silver with a smile, and the two descended to the streets, where one fat scientist was deposited before them. "You can do what you want with him." Shadow shrugged.

"Thank you," Blaze replied with a smile.